Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Practice Exam

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What is the purpose of an IPv6 Anycast address?

To send packets to all interfaces in a network
To send packets to the latest interface based on routing metrics
To send packets to a specific pre-defined interface
To send packets to an unknown group of nodes

The correct answer is: To send packets to the latest interface based on routing metrics

The purpose of an IPv6 Anycast address is to send packets to the nearest interface among a group of potential recipients based on the routing metrics. In essence, when an IPv6 Anycast address is utilized, the network selects the closest node that is configured with that specific Anycast address to handle the packet. This mechanism is particularly useful for services such as content delivery networks and distributed services, where users benefit from reduced latency by connecting to the nearest server or node. In contrast, sending packets to all interfaces in a network would involve multicast addressing, which serves a very different function. Targeting a specific pre-defined interface pertains to unicast addressing, where the packet is directed to a unique address. Finally, the notion of sending packets to an unknown group of nodes does not align with the defined purpose of Anycast, which involves a set of known addresses from which routing selects the best candidate based on metrics.